The best area to stay in Zurich is the Altstadt. It is the most central area, where many of the tourist attractions of the City are located. In addition, other neighborhoods are a very good option or even better, depending on what you are looking for. Find out where to stay in Zurich.
Zurich is a city in northeastern Switzerland, the largest in the country. The City seems taken from a fairy tale because of the appearance of the medieval streets of its historic center. Its lake Zurich that reflects it as a static selfie and a background decoration that form the snowy peaks of the Swiss Alps.
Where to stay in Zurich? List of the cheapest hotels near Zurich
- THE FLAG Zürich
- Hotel St. Georges
- ibis budget Zurich Airport
- ibis Winterthur City
- Hotel Hottingen
- ibis Zurich City West
- Arlette Am Hauptbahnhof Hotel
- Depot 195 – Hostel Winterthur
- Youth Hostel Zurich
- Hotel Montana Zurich
- Leoneck Swiss Hotel
- Crowne Plaza Zurich
- Hotel St Gotthard
- Zurich Marriott Hotel
- Sorell Hotel Rutli
The City has a high standard of living by the standards of southern Europe. In spite of its reputation as the center of the most orthodox international banking and of being the homeland of chocolatiers with a lot of history. Zurich is also a modern city whose leisurely rhythm seduces its visitors.
This Swiss city has a generous cultural offer. Still, its parks, its gardens, its nearby lakes is the first one in Zurich and even its river allows to interact in the City differently and almost feel like another neighbor.
There are the pools along the river to go where people go. The rental bicycles to trace routes and stroll in another way. Their green spaces to enjoy nature. Choose it for a trip and stay in Zurich some nights to enjoy its charms is worth it.
The best areas to stay in Zurich
A key relationship of areas to stay in Zurich should include the districts of Altstadt, Seefeld, Enge, Langstrasse, Wiedikon and Sihlfeld. It is the part of West Zurich with the neighborhoods of Gewerbeschule and Escher Wyss and the Zurich Airport area.
The area of Altstadt is perhaps the best of all, allows you to be close to the most outstanding attractions, door to door of the most important historic buildings. Enjoy the most complete and varied offer of accommodation. From the cheapest hotels in the area around the Hauptbahnhof station to the most exclusive five-star hotels. It stands between its streets.
The rest of the downtown neighborhoods say staying in Zurich at more reasonable prices. If the search is done based on two and three-star hotels. The distances are perfectly salvageable by the bus and tram services that work, how could it be otherwise, such as Swiss watches.
The apartments are quite expensive and there are not many offers for the most common. It is advisable to explore the holiday rental apartments. In the case of families with children or groups of friends in each of the districts and check their location with the combined transport options.
We go through neighborhoods analyzing what to see in each of them how is the accommodation to stay in Zurich in each district. We start from the historic center.
1. Altstadt
That said, the Altstadt is the neighborhood of the historic center of the City of Zurich. From an administrative point of view, Altstadt is divided, in turn, into four neighborhoods: the Rathaus area, the Town Hall. The part of Hochschulen, the universities. The Lindenhof area (‘The lemon tree courtyard’) and City.
Lindenhof and Rathaus correspond to what was the medieval City, to the left and to the right of the Limmat river. City and Hochschulen form the modern part of Zurich, to the east and west of the medieval walls. The center of Zurich is paved with cobblestones, perfect and safe to walk at any time.
The key to entering, leaving and moving in the center is the Munster bridge that saves the river. The Altstadt is an eminently commercial area and specializes in tourist services. There is no shortage of good restaurants, some fast food, and bars with typical Central European style.
A perfect environment to sleep in Zurich if you want to be close to the attractions worth visiting. Do shopping and make memories of traveling home and family.
Two shopping streets are especially recommended in the old town of Bahnhofstrasse, where you can buy items of leading brands and fashion. The others are those that are ordered around the Niederdorf area that will leave a good memory in the retina. It is a series of streets full of alternative stores and very curious clothing boutiques.
In the Rathaus area, you should not miss the same Zurich City Hall building, built in the 1690s. The two iconic cathedrals of the City, that of Fraumünster, the Church of Our Lady, invoice medieval. The Grossmünster, built in Gothic style sometime later.
You also have to reserve time to visit two of the best permanent exhibitions in Zurich, the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Switzerland.
The Zurich tram system is the most recommended way to get around the City. In the Altstadt area, a crossing of key lines is that of the Bellevueplatz that allows you to connect with the routes of lines 2, 4, 5, 8, 11 and 15. In addition to having buses 912 and 916 nearby that make it easier the connections with the rest of the visitable areas.
2. Seefeld
The Seefeld district is located south of Zurich. It is a residential area where Hafen Riesbach stands out, a private marina on the river between the Seefeldquai and Blatterwiese areas.
The Seefeld environment has many public parks that combine tastes and designs from different historical periods. A moment to visit them in late spring. One to see yes is the Chinese Garden Zürich.
It is also advisable to eat in the restaurant that occupies the place of the old and popular Lido, a historic kiosk, turned into a pavilion and very chic dining space.
If what you are looking for is to meet curiosities at street level, then you have to find a keystone, never better, that of Klaus Stud. It originally served to mark the medieval limit of the City of Zurich. Beyond the stone, you could not enter the City without permission.
For art lovers, it is necessary to point out on the road map of a trip to Zurich to see the sculpture of Henry Moore called Sheep Piece (1976) and the Pavillon Le Corbusier. It is the headquarters of the old Le Corbusier Center – Heidi Weber Museum, a permanent exhibition dedicated to Franco-Swiss artists, also located between Seefeld Quai and Blatter Wiese.
If you have more time, you can include visiting the Suchard and Bellerive Museum, the spas located on the shore of Lake Seebad, the Utoquai and the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen, as well as the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich.
And more, the spectacle of some family houses with a history of the area and the Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, a brewery and a mill converted into a very popular cultural center. In the neighborhood, there is also a significant number of delicatessen stores.
It is a very popular residential neighborhood, too. Still, if you are looking for an apartment to stay in Zurich. It is not a recommended place because of the high prices of this type of accommodation in this area.
On mobility in the area, public transport is concentrated around the Tiefenbrunnen railway station, where you can take the S6 and S16 suburban lines to get around Zurich.
As regards the tram lines 2 and 4 guarantees travel to other neighborhoods and 33 also tram and bus 912 and 916 ensures mobility to other nearby municipalities.
3. Enge
Enge is a neighborhood in the southern center of the City of Zurich between the Limmat River and Lake Zurich. It is a residential area where you can find mid-level hotels ideal for staying in Zurich. It is for those who want to repair expenses on a trip to Switzerland.
Some history as an introduction. Enge originally settled on a group of small islands located around Sechseläutenplatz. Remains of that past are the prehistoric settlements of Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner that can be seen in a pavilion located on the shores of the lake in the same area.
Two places worth taking into account in Enge are the Synagoge Zürich Löwenstrasse. The Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ), a temple and a library that is referenced for the Jewish community in Switzerland.
The Arboretum Zurich in Enge is a space cataloged with notable plant species that is part of the inventory of protected gardens in Switzerland. You have to see it in the spring or early summer.
To move around the area, the Zürich Enge train station that has a suburban train stop of the Zürich S-Bahn lines S2, S8, S21 and S24. Buses are also recommended.
4. Langstrasse
Langstrasse is the most dynamic district of Zurich in what was once the City’s red-light district. It is located just north of the historic center. It is a commercial area where luxury stores and clothing boutiques rival.
But Langstrasse, literally ‘the long street,’ is a first-class nightlife environment where bars, nightclubs, fast-food restaurants to eat in local or take-out restaurants that do not close all day are concentrated.
Over time, the district has gained remarkable popularity with the consolidation of groups of young artists and fashion designers and very creative restaurant owners.
If you are going to visit Zurich and you want fun, you have to be attentive to the calendar of events held in the district. One of them is the Langstrasse Fest, which has been held every two years since 1996. At some times, it has exceeded the attendance of more than 250,000 people.
In the years in which this event is not celebrated, the Longstreet Carnival takes place. Another festival is Hot, which happens to be the most important of all the Latinos in Europe. For moviegoers, every summer between July and August, outdoor screenings are held in Kanzleiareal, not far from Helvetiaplatz.
To get around in the area, you have to be attentive to bus lines 31 and 66 and to tram number 7. It guarantee connections with other districts of the City of Zurich.
5. Wiedikon and Sihlfeld
Wiedikon is a district of the City of Zurich located southwest of the city center. It is a quiet and eminently residential neighborhood. The center of the neighborhood is the Buehl, a set of streets and buildings located on top of a small hill.
At that height is the church, the Bühl Kirche, neo-Gothic and built-in 1896. Nearby is the headquarters of the Wiedikon High School divided into two buildings, one old and one new. In the 1930s, the hillside of the center of Wiedikon began to develop into a plot of streets that exists today.
Historical sets that can be admired in the area are the eight churches of the district, all built-in recent times, but loaded with great significance for the community they attend.
Nor should we miss a very interesting museum in the area, that of Rietberg, specialized in oriental, pre-Columbian and African art. The main building very striking and surrounded by a green environment that invites tranquility (Glaber Strasse, 15).
In the area, it is possible to find sleeping apartments in Zurich, although their prices are not exactly low. To get to and from Wiedikon, you can use the tram service and lines 2, 3, 5, 9, 13, 14 and 17 that allow you to connect with any other district of Zurich. The same as bus lines 32, 33 and 72.
The Sihlfeld district, meanwhile, is located west of the urban center of Zurich. In the area, highlights the Sihlfeld cemetery, which happens to be the largest green space in the City. An ideal place to walk and also find tranquility.
There are countless unique trees, equally unique tombs and a whole fauna that runs around the place, including foxes, squirrels and woodpeckers that are noticeable. In the cemetery, some notorious figures of the history of Switzerland rest, as is the case of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross.
To move to the neighborhood and connect with other points in Zurich, you have to use the bus, the one on line 72, the trams on lines 2 and 11 do the same service.
6. West Zurich, the neighborhoods of Gewerbeschule and Escher Wyss
The Gewerbeschule district is a business and service area of Zurich located immediately north of the historic center. It is a perfect place to stay in Zurich because it offers a wide variety of accommodation, especially medium, three and four-star hotels, which are close to what you have to see in the City.
In the restaurants of the area, you have to be seduced by what the inhabitants of Zurich take to the table and form part of their culinary culture. A reference, the surroundings of Gasometer Strasse street.
That said, for breakfast, the muesli bowls of varied and healthy cereals. The bread of the bakeries of the City is a delicacy. At lunchtime, you have to decide on the Zürigschnätzlets. Meat made with a dense cream and a peculiar wine sauce.
Also, popular grilled sausages (wurst) that usually serve with a somewhat crispy potato tortilla. In international-style restaurants in the Gewerbeschule area, Italian and Turkish dishes are typical due to the influence of the immigrant population.
For its part, the district of Escher Wyss is north of the historic center. The neighborhood is completely residential and takes its name from the company Escher Wyss & Cie that at the time was based in the district. The company’s former Schiffbau or shipbuilding space is currently a theater whose program is coordinated by the Schauspielhaus Zurich.
A place of reference in the surroundings is the Technopark Zurich. It was built between 1989 and 1993 precisely on the site occupied by the company Escher Wyss & Cie. The creation of this space allowed the planning of 17 hectares of the district.
The neighborhood has three tram lines in Zurich, 4, 13 and 17, linking Escher-Wyss-Platz with the center of Zurich. Lines 33 and 72 of the Zurich trolleybus cross the neighborhood on the elevated Hardbrücke road that passes over Escher-Wyss-Platz.
7. Zurich Airport
Kloten Airport is the reference airport facility in Zurich. It is just ten kilometers from the center. In the surroundings of Kloten. There is a shopping center, the Einkaufszentrum Glatt. It has a leisure and catering offer that can adapt to the traveling needs of families and couples. About 7 kilometers from Kloten and the airport is the Zurich Zoo.
The airport is connected to the capital with SSB trains that perform services between 6 am and 10 pm each day of the year. Other rail services also have connections such as EuroCity, Intercity, InterCity Neigezug, InterRegio regionals, urban, suburban trains S16 and S2.
Now, you can understand where to stay in Zurich. The price of hotels near the airport to stay in Zurich may be more affordable. If you want to be near the airport, it is an option. Otherwise, try to stay in more central neighborhoods.
